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Grassroots effort beginning to bring students back to Folsom Field

Pauly hopes to emulate C-Unit environment at football games

By Kyle Ringo

BuffZone.com Writer

Posted:
08/24/2014 03:53:01 PM MDT

Updated:
08/25/2014 08:42:34 AM MDT

CU students cheer on the Buffs before a football game at Folsom Field against Hawaii in 2010. In recent years, student support for the football program has dwindled as the team has produced lackluster results. The athletic department, football team and some students are hoping to reverse those trends this fall. (JEREMY PAPASSO / Daily Camera)

It's been nearly a decade since the Colorado football program produced a winning season. As a result, ticket sales have fallen throughout the stadium in recent years and student attendance has dropped dramatically, too.

The Buffs attracted an average of 38,296 fans last season, the first time since 1988 the program failed to average at least 45,000.

There are plenty of entertainment options in Boulder and the surrounding area for fans and students on fall Saturdays, especially when the snow begins to fly in the mountains and ski areas open. More and more CU students, just like other fans, have opted out of watching the Buffs lose in recent years in favor of those other activities.

A CU student leads his peers in a cheer before the second half of a men's basketball game against UCLA at the Coors Events Center in January. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)

Coach Mike MacIntyre and his players are hoping to start to win the students and other fans back this fall as they pursue the program's first bowl bid since 2007 and the first winning season since 2005. It won't be easy in the Pac-12 Conference, generally considered one of the two best in the country heading into the season.

A full student section can transform the atmosphere of a stadium and spark the players on the field.

"It helps tremendously to have support from students," MacIntyre said. "We talk to them all the time. Like I've always said, if we keep getting better on the field it will start filling more and more up.

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"So I can't control any of that, neither can our players. What we can control is how hard we play on the field and start having more better results and more often. I think that will help everything. I feel like the students are behind us. The more we have big games, the more excited they will get."

CU routinely sold more than 10,000 student season tickets throughout most of the 1990s and 2000s and often sold out or came close to selling out the 12,500 allotment for students. But in three of the past four years, CU has failed to sell 10,000 student season tickets and last year it sold just 8,362 — the fewest in 27 years.

CU is not alone in falling attendance among students at college football games. Mlive.com reported earlier this year that Michigan was expecting as many as 5,000 fewer student tickets sold this season. Many other nationally prominent programs also have experienced decreased attendance from students, who often become the future donors to programs once they're alums.

The Buffs have plenty of help from athletic director Rick George and his team who are trying to convince former season-ticket holders, new customers and current students to be a part of the turnaround.

"There is nothing out there that is the lightning idea that is going to bring the students in," George said this summer. "We've just got to really engage the students more. We met with the tri execs over the summer to try to work with them on creative ways that we can get students into the game, on time and keep them here.

"That's a challenge and it's a challenge across the country, but it's something we'll continue to work on and continue to meet with different student groups to try to encourage our students because, let's face it, our students create a great atmosphere in our gym and we need to create that same atmosphere at Folsom Field."

They didn't have to sell Jake Pauly, a CU sophomore from Highlands Ranch, who is working with the athletic department and student groups on campus to form an organized student section for football similar to the C-Unit in basketball. Pauly also has started the National Collegiate Student Section Association, which will have its first conference at the University of Nebraska in June.

"I'm a big believer in a lot of people at the games changes the total atmosphere of the games, especially basketball games when it's that close environment," Pauly said. "The more students there makes the players play better."

Pauly said he was heavily involved with the student section at Highlands Ranch High School and began to dress up in costume to attend CU basketball games last year as a freshman member of the C-Unit. He comes to games as Batman, along with dozens of his fellow students who come in costumes of their own.

But it's easy for CU students to get excited about supporting Tad Boyle and his players at the Coors Events Center these days. The Buffs are expected to get to a fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament in the 2014-15 season and games at the Coors Events Center on winter nights and weekends have become must-attend events, because of the winning culture and the fun atmosphere created by the students.

Pauly sees a day coming in the near future when Folsom Field can be a similar attraction once again, but he believes fans and students must play a part in making it happen as opposed to waiting for it to happen.

"That's the big thing, the team hasn't been up to par," Pauly said explaining recent student apathy. "I think one of the big things I'm struggling with, especially at CU, is getting fans to games on time. The stands would be empty in the first quarter and then midway through the second quarter it was packed cause people are still tailgating. So I feel like a big problem is people feel like there is no reason to be there at the beginning. They check to see how CU is doing and if they're getting blown out, they will leave. That's how the culture is right now."

Pauly said he doesn't yet know what the student section for football will be called. He is attempting to spread the word about the new student section through email and social media and help from the C-Unit.

He said he recently sent a mass email to students who have purchased tickets encouraging them to volunteer to serve on the student section's executive board and work to grow its ranks. He said he wants his fellow students to vote on a name in the coming weeks.

Nearly 10 years ago, three CU students who shared a mutual love for college basketball got together with a plan to form the C-Unit.

In those years under former coach Ricardo Patton, the Coors Events Center was usually half empty or worse for most non-conference games, and generally only filled up in conference play when teams like Kansas or Texas came to town. Student support was just as half-hearted and Dennis Collins, Jason Weiss and Aaron Sapiro wanted to change the culture.

They spent the rest of their time in Boulder setting the groundwork for what the C-Unit has become today while working toward their degrees. Collins, who is now an attorney in Dallas, said Pauly and others who join him must persevere through the tough times as MacIntyre continues to build the program. He said some of the challenges of building a student section are keeping it grassroots oriented and student driven and avoiding the perception that it is affiliated with the athletic department.

"I think it's great that there are people out there that have the initiative to do that and want to take it on their own shoulders because nothing really happens unless you get sort of student-driven support," Collins said. "The athletic department can only do so much hand holding and support from their end. It takes kids like Jake to get the ball rolling."

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